The American School for the Deaf was bequeathed a mansion on a private island in one of the Twin Lakes up in the Berkshire Mountains of Connecticut. It’s called Isola Bella and the school runs its summer camp there. In 2009, the compound was in need of repair and ongoing maintenance but the school lacked the resources at the time to do the work.

CO:LAB’s Richard Hollant was the incoming president of the Connecticut Chapter of AIGA (the professional design association)—an affinity group he helped to establish the year before. As an early example in what would become a nationwide Design for Good movement, we organized a weekend retreat on Isola Bella for several dozen designers with the goal of offering training in the discipline of “design thinking” and drafting strategic recommendations for the school for how the island could be activated year-round to help cover the cost of upkeep.